cilium

Borrowed from Latin cilium (“eyelid”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪl.i.əm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪliəm

cilium (plural cilia)

1. (cytology) A short microscopic hairlike organelle projecting from a eukaryotic cell (such as a unicellular organism or one cell of a multicelled organism) which serve either for propulsion by causing currents in the surrounding fluid or as sensors.

   Hyponym: primary cilium

   • 1892, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Claus, edited by F. G. Heathcote, Elementary Text-book of Zoology:

     It is the deeper parts of such cells which give rise to delicate muscular fibres or networks of fibres, while the superficially placed body of the cell myoblast), the part which produces the above, performs other functions, and usually bears a cilium.

   • 2006, Manfred Schliwa, Molecular Motors, page 359:

     The clockwise beating of cilia results in a net flow of extraembryonic fluid leftwards […]

2. (entomology) One of the fine hairs along an insect's wing.
3. (botany) One of the hairs or similar protrusions along the margin of an organ.
4. (anatomy) An eyelash.

• ciliolum

• supercilium

• flagellum

• “cilium”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cilium”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

From Proto-Italic *keljom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-yo-m, which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”).^[1] Alternatively, compare Ancient Greek κῠ́λᾱ (kŭ́lā, “the parts under the eyes”) (though Beekes doubts this connection and derives the latter from Pre-Greek).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkɪ.li.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃiː.li.um]

cilium n (genitive ciliī or cilī); second declension

1. (anatomy) eyelid

   Synonym: palpebra

   1. (transferred sense) lower eyelid

      Antonym: supercilium

2. (Medieval Latin, usually in the plural) eyelash

   Synonym: palpebra

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• ciliāris (adjective)
• intercilium
• supercilium

(Several via the plural cilia.)

• “cilium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cilium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• cilium in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cĭlium”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 627